A Steamy New Direction
A few short months ago, Steam announced that it’s experimental Greenlight program would be coming to a close in exchange for a their new system; Steam Direct.
Greenlight allows members of the community to choose games to go on to full releases, based on community votes. The Direct system replaces that with digital paperwork and a $100 fee.
Valve has had the current program in place since August 30, 2012. It allowed an ‘incredible variety of games’ as Valve said in an official statement on Steam.
However, Valve stopped receiving submissions as well as closing voting on June 6th, giving themselves a week to switch to Steam Direct, as they said on their website.
Steam ends their official statement by asking the community for patience as they wade through “3,400+ pending submissions.”
As a silver lining, the new program simply takes a $100 buy-in as well as digital paperwork. Most of which is tax information.
The most exciting aspect of the new fee is “This fee is returned in the payment period after the game has sold $1,000”. meaning more money can stay in use for development.
A full release on the changes that have happened as well as those incoming can be found on Steam’s website, here.
Looking Forward…
Massive successes have come from the Greenlight program including Stardew Valley, 7 Days to Die and many more. Whether or not this pattern will continue is (as always) up to the community.
Are you happy with the changes to come, or do you prefer the current vote-based Greenlight model?
Let us know in the comments below.
